Deck 2: The Origins and Early History of Rhetoric

Question 1

What beliefs, practices, and personal qualities characterized the Sophists?

Answer 1

The Sophists were a group of orators, writers, and teachers of rhetoric in ancient Athens. Many ofthem became famous and wealthy through their abilities and teachings. Most of the Sophists wereforeigners, charged money for education, and believed in a relative view of truth, all of which createdcontroversy amongst many Greeks who held to more traditional values. All of the Sophists were known for their skills with words and are now credited with systemizing and developing the art of rhetoric.

Question 2

What educational revolution did the Sophists introduce into Athenian society? Why were these teachers of rhetoric controversial in Athens?

Answer 2

The Sophists disrupted the Athenian educational tradition by claiming to teach arête (virtue or excellence) and for charging money for instruction. The Sophists claim to teach excellence in this way was disruptive as this meant education became a means of entering higher social classes.Charging money for education went against Athenian culture and was seen by many to be unethical. The Sophists were also controversial because of their relative views on truth and justice and because many saw their rhetorical methods as deceptive.

Question 3

What was the Sophists' view of truth?

Answer 3

The Sophists were skeptical of any sort of absolute truth or divine source of knowledge and values.Their cultural relativism as foreigners made them aware that beliefs differed vastly in different places. They believed that truth was not found in transcendent sources like the gods, but instead thatmomentary and practical truths came out of the clashing of arguments.

Question 4

Why was the concept of a clash of views important to the Sophists?

Question 5

What was the right of isegoria?

Question 6

Why, in your own words, was the study of rhetoric important to the citizens of ancient Athens?

Question 7

What threat did the Sophists pose to traditional Greek society?

Question 8

What claims did the Sophists make about their teaching? What was areté?

Question 9

What did Gorgias see as the relationship between rhetoric and magic?

Question 10

What goal did Isocrates seek through his emphasis on pan-Hellenism?

Question 11

Who was Aspasia? What was her relationship to rhetoric?

Question 12

What freedom regarding speaking in public did Spartan women enjoy?

Question 13

For what was Sappho famous?

Question 14

What members of contemporary society, in your estimation, most resemble the Sophists?

Question 15

After reading about the Sophists, do you think they deserve the bad reputation they had with many of their contemporaries?

Question 16

In what ways, if any, does U.S. society appear to be Sophistic in orientation?

Question 17

Could the teaching and practice of rhetoric in our own society elicit the same controversy it did in ancient Greece? Why or why not?

Question 18

Assuming that rhetoric is not a central educational concern today, where do citizens today learn to reason and to speak persuasively?

Question 19

What, if anything, might be gained by a consistent program of rhetorical studies in schools today? Is there anything to be gained by not teaching people to reason and speak persuasively and effectively? What group, if any, realizes an advantage from the absence of rhetorical training?

Question 20

What, if anything, is the relationship between truth and argument? Persuasion and ethics?

Question 21

The Sophists built a view of justice on conventional agreements or nomos. Other possible sources of law or justice included natural law (physis), and certain truth derived from philosophical argumentation (logos). What, in your opinion, ought to be the basis of a view of justice?

Question 22

Do you agree with Gorgias about the great potential in language for the control of the minds of others? What, if any, are the risks associated with great eloquence? How should the public be educated so as to have a defense against the great rhetorical skill possessed by some speakers and writers?

Question 23

What effects on the subsequent history of Western culture may have resulted from the exclusion of women from rhetorical theory and practice in ancient Greece?

Question 24

The chapter discusses the fact that women were barred from public speaking venues in ancient Greece. We have also considered that, despite this prohibition, women such as Aspasia, Sappho, the Pythia at the Oracle at Delphi, and Spartan women contributed through speech and writing to ancient Greek culture. How does the expression of women's voices differ from that of men in these ancient cultures? What might we learn from this about efforts to prevent groups or individuals from speaking in public?

Question 25

The Sophists claimed to be able to instruct their students in ______________ a Greek term meaning virtue, excellence, and a capacity for success.

Question 26

The Sophists used the dialectic method to teach their students and most believed that through the Greek term______________, or the clashing of contradictory arguments, their students would gain skill in debate as well as a better view of the truth.

Question 27

______________ was a female poet in ancient Greece that lived on the island of Lesbos and gained acclaim throughout Greece, even having statues built in her honor.

Question 28

With the rise of democracy in Athens, every free male citizen enjoyed the right of ______________, a Greek term for the guarantee of the opportunity to speak freely in public assemblies.

Question 29

The Sophists believed in the Greek notion of ______________, a term meaning a favorable situation or opportune moment. This term related to a sense of decorum, as well as creating truth in the moment with regards to timing and circumstance.

Question 30

In the dialectic method that Sophists used to teach, speeches and arguments started from statements termed _____________, or premises that were widely believed or taken to be highly probable.

Question 31

Which of the following is the name of the movement Isocrates advocated for that sought for the Greek city-states to join together as one country?

A) Unitarianism
B) Pan-Hellenism
C) Demokratia
D) Encomium on Helen

Question 32

Which Sophist believed that a rhetor was a psychagogos or a leader of souls through a kind of rhetorical magic or incantation?

A) Gorgias
B) Isocrates
C) Protagoras
D) Aristophanes

Question 33

The Sophists were controversial for building a view of justice centered around which of the following?

A) Thesmos: law derived from the authority of kings
B) Nomos: social custom or convention; rule by agreement among citizens
C) Physis: the law or rule of nature under which the strong dominate the weak
D) Logos: law that is transcendent and derives from philosophical argumentation

Question 34

Which of the following is the function of language Richard Leo Enos finds in Homeric writings that deals with language's ability to "'turn' or direct human thought."?

A) Eristic
B) Heuristic
C) Imperio
D) Protreptic

Question 35

Which of the following was the female rhetorician in the fifth century BCE who was a hetaera, and said to have taught the art of rhetoric to many, including Socrates?

A) Aspasia
B) Helen
C) Delphi
D) Isocrates

Question 36

Which of the following is alleged to have been the first to charge for lectures, is considered by some to be the first of the Greek Sophists, and is famous for the maxim, "man is the measure of all things; of things that are not, that they are not; of things that are, that they are."?

A) Gorgias
B) Protagoras
C) Isocrates
D) Empedocles

Question 37

The Sophists taught the Athenians that the ability to speak persuasively was a natural talent or a gift from the gods.

Question 38

As pioneers of the concept of equality, Athenians thought it was fair that the Sophists be paid for teaching how to speak persuasively.

Question 39

Many of the Sophists had traveled broadly, believed in a cultural relativism, and were skeptical about a divine source of knowledge or value.

Question 40

Rhetoric as a systematic discipline originated in Sicily, in the city of Syracuse.

Question 41

Plato considered rhetoric a true techne or art, and was one of the first philosophers to support the Sophists.

Question 42

Sophists claimed they could teach how to control audiences through speech, aspects of leadership, and careful management of one's resources.

Question 43

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Virtue, personal excellence, the ability to manage one's personal affairs in an intelligent manner, and to succeed in public life. Natural leadership ability.

Question 44

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Rhetorical device that takes its name from the reversing of elements in adjacent clauses.

Question 45

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Premises that were widely believed or taken to be highly probable. The probable premises from which dialectic began.

Question 46

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Social custom or convention; rule by agreement among the citizens.

Question 47

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-A poet, a leader of souls through a kind of incantation.

Question 48

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-A practical art, a science, or a systematic study.

Question 49

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Contradictory arguments or claims.

Question 50

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-The right of all free male citizens to speak in the Athenian assembly.

Question 51

According to Richard Enos, what three functions of language had Homer already identified in the ninth century BCE? Identify and briefly describe each function of language.

Question 52

The text makes the point that the Sophists were not the first people to practice rhetoric. If this is the case, what were the Greek Sophists the first to do with rhetoric?

Question 53

When were the first Sophists active in Greece?

Question 54

Name two Sophists discussed in Chapter Two and provide one contribution or interest of each.

Question 55

Briefly describe the interests and influence of the Sophist Gorgias.

Question 56

Why was the Sophist Gorgias so interested in style and the sounds of words?

Question 57

Briefly describe the contributions of the Sophist Protagoras to an understanding of rhetoric.

Question 58

Briefly describe the teachings, interests, and influence of Isocrates.

Question 59

Who was Aspasia, and which great Athenian orator was likely influenced by her?

Question 60

Write an essay describing the rise and influence of the Greek Sophists. What characteristics defined the Sophists? When were they active in Greece? What did they say they would teach, and what were some of their methods of instruction? What events or social conditions contributed to their rise to prominence and their tremendous impact on Athens? Why were the Sophists so controversial?

Question 61

Identify and describe two major Greek Sophists discussed in the text. When was each active? What concerns or interests characterized each?